Runners

by Ann Kelley

As mankind strives to rebuild society in the wake of climate change, over-population and global food shortages, every day is a struggle for people like Sid and his younger sister Lo. They are 'runners'- people whose very survival the government has outlawed. As they move west, trying to find family or somewhere they can call home, they must work out which of the people they meet on the way can be trusted, and which want to cut their adventure short. Encountering people on both sides of the law, as well as those who seem to exist outside it, Sid and Lo make and lose friends as they fight for their lives and each other.

Genres: Dystopia

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2013

About the author

Ann Kelley is the author of The Burying Beetle (shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award) and The Bower Bird (Winner of the Costa Children’s Book of the Year Award). She has also published two poetry collections, The Poetry Remedy (1999) and Paper Whites (2001). She has won several prizes for her poems and has run courses for aspiring poets from her home. She is an honorary teaching fellow at Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter and Plymouth. Her collected photographic works are Born and Bred (1988) and Sea Front (2005).

Reviews

[Fergal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this! Dark but light... wonderful :)

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book I read for book club. I have some mixed opinions on it, but first of all - can I say THIS BOOK LIED TO ME!!??? It looks like a really short book when you pick it up - yes, I thought it would be a quick read. BUT THERE ARE SO MANY WORDS ON ONE SINGLE PAGE!! And the pages are really thin! So you think you've made progress but in reality you haven't. WHAT IS THIS TRICKERY.

LIKES
- Kelley paints a bleak but honest image of the future world in this book. It is based around the idea of extreme global warming - the sea level has risen by seven metres and much of the world is flooded. Because of this, much of the population has been killed as there is not enough food for everyone. Things like fishing have been banned because there are not enough fish left in the sea.
- It is set in Cornwall - and I LOVE Cornwall! It included some familiar names of places that I have been to and heard of and it was really nice.
- There are some very thoughtful questions raised in this book ad it faces ideas such as the murder of innocents so that humanity can survive. It questions lots of things and it is really interesting to see.

DISLIKES
- I didn't really feel any life from the characters - sometimes I felt like Sid was ten, and other times he acted way older. I didn't feel like he was fourteen. And also Lo was quite cute at the beginning, but after a while she grew very irritating.
- I found the whole book slow and it didn't really have a plot. There was no action and everything was very centralised around Lo and Sid.
- Despite the interesting premise, the book didn't have very much world building beyond what was going on in Sid and Lo's life.
- Mal seemed like a random insertion for the sake of the plot.
- The author's writing, although not bad, was very tell and not show and sentence structures are often repeated too many times in a row so that it seems clumsy. It was very 'He did this and he did that'.

I've read better, but this was still an interesting idea I think it is a good book for discussion, as if raises good questions and moral values. In my opinion, it was quite different from other stuff I have read before and I think more people should read it.

(but the cover is ugly though)

[SJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upon reflection, I'm giving this 3.5 stars.

Firstly, it's not an easy read. Horrible, horrible things happen to children in this book. This is a common thing in current YA fiction at the moment...especially post-apocalyptic type stuff. Much of that sort of fiction is sanitized to some degree, though. Not Runners. Runners is harsh. Harsh in a way that seems very very possible and very very chilling.

Essentially, the world is in rough shape. Global warming required that drastic measures be taken to reduce the impact on the world, and so animals were slaughtered in massive numbers (and instead artificially created meat is on the required menu). But it seemed that this artificial stuff wasn't in high enough demand for the number of people on earth, and so a massive cull of the weak and sick was carried out by governmental requirements. This was eventually taken a step further so that even entire age groups were eliminated. Some people went like lambs to the slaughter, while others...well...ran. Hence the name of the book.

The story is both plausible and not. Much of it seemed far-fetched. And yet, so many parallels were drawn to Nazi camps, that I couldn't help but think it was actually very possible that some of these scenarios would come into play. It was that plausibility that kept me turning the pages, wanting to see what would be coming next.

The story moves along in a way that keeps the pages turning. It even takes this a step further than some other YA fiction by adding in some artistic descriptions of things going on outside the story line...typically of animals lurking just outside the field of vision. I think it was meant to add depth to the book, but sometimes it just felt clunky and needless, and I didn't buy it.

The book ends rather abruptly also, and I didn't get the sense that it planned on a sequel, though it is certainly open to one if the opportunity to should present itself. It felt like the author ran out of time and money and so if you like ends tied up neatly, don't pick this one up.

Overall, though, not a bad story, and one that stayed with me for a few days after reading it. It's not something I will recommend with passion to others, though. And I doubt I'll ever re-read it.

[Mur McEwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting fictional account of what life might be like (in Cornwall) some decades after the balance has tipped on climate change. An exercise in eugenics with the young hero Sid overcoming a series of mishaps to seek a secure future. I found the plot a bit thin (and a few typos that should have been picked up on proof reading); but am glad I read the book

[Theresa Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this book. It has a great premise. The world has changed because of global warming, climate change so there has been a 'reduction' in the world population. Great ideas, somehow they just never came to much of anything. It started out quietly and I thought it may build a bit, however it never really went anywhere. A bit of mindless killing, some sad deaths but the ending was hugely disappointing. There were no real connections between any of tue characters and some of the things that haooened didnt really make any sense.

I finished the book because I kept hoping it would get better. Not really a total waste of time but also wouldnt ever bother reading another one by this author.

[Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I want to thank the lovely person who sent this to me on Bookmooch. Thank you! I really enjoyed it.


"What's the point of being alive if you're inhuman?"


I was surprised by Runners, but in a good way. Come on - we've all seen those heaps of YA post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels. I've come to not expect too much from them. In the sense of driving plot, thrilling, building tension, Runners doesn't have that much to offer. It's a third person narrative which can be a bit emotionally detached and I didn't feel a whole lot of fear for the characters at any point, although they were in plenty of danger.

For once, though, I'm glad of the third person narration - because it enables the author to make characters of wildlife and the landscape itself. It was beautiful. Truly beautiful. I don't know how else to put it. I even loved the author's Q&A at the end of the book - the little ode to Cornwall, the comments about climate change, her lack of formal education which belied her intelligent writing, and how she explains her choice to write for the YA reader - an audience she views as having this childlike openness to learning and experience but being "adult enough to make sophisticated choices"

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of my book club.

This was interesting! We initially picked this book because of it's shortness, and we felt intrigued by the storyline. However, as time went on, we became more confused: the plot lacked anything that made it interesting. I was extremely confused as to the motivations for the main characters, and felt the backstory needed to be fleshed out more. I did enjoy the characters though, but some were particularly more irritating than others.

This book was interesting to discuss, and we all shared similar sentiments surrounding the story. A different read to my usual choices, and a captivating idea. 3 stars- wouldn't read again.

[Freya Laidler · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. I think the blurb made it sound amazing and better then it really was. I was never excited to go and read this book and it took perseverance to get through it. Every time I did read it I ended up zoning out and not even finishing the chapter.

I felt like not a lot happened throughout the whole thing. There was barely a storyline. Literally the only thing that happened is they travelled. Nothing else. There was very few high action bits but it wasn’t memorable enough for me to tell you what they were. The whole thing wasn’t animated enough.

I’m glad to be finished with it.

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book as it isn't something I normally read and climate change is very relevant right now. I loved how it was written. Sid and Lo were great characters and I liked the happy ending. Overall I was quite disappointed, I thought it should have explained more about how the world had gone the way it did. Instead you just had snippets of it, which didn't feel like enough backstory so you was kind of making it up yourself as to what you think happened. Wouldn't recommend the book to anyone and I wouldn't read anything of hers again.

[Tommorowiscloudy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really didnt like this book, the gratuitous violence towards such vulnerable children created an overwhelming futility; I think that if a book wants to leave its reader with a drive to change and make a difference, it needs to offer at least some hope and I thought this book sorely lacked that. To be honest, reading this book did not make me inspired to fight climate change, it left me with pessimism and dread for the future.

[Johanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a dystopian future Cornwall suffering the effect of global warming and climate change, a harrowing story of a teenage boy trying to keep himself and his younger sister alive in a time of scarce resources and population control.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice concept, well written,, but obviously very YA plot development

[Hazel Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing that so little has been said about this book, I felt compelled to voice something in celebration of its engaging and very frightening narrative. This book, out of all the dystopian novels I've read so far has to be one of the most realistically scary. The main character Sid, charged by his mother before their separation, to take care of his five year old fairy dress wearing sister, is just brilliant. His weighty responsibility for Lo is depicted forcefully, but at the same time, thier sibling relationship shines through as tinged with irritation at their misunderstandings and Lo's inability to keep up with the seriousness of the threat they face in their everyday lives. Sid goes from fear to exasperation in his attempts to keep Lo safe and healthy; a battle that an adult would find almost impossible in the circumstances of the story. Lo's infant naivity as well as endearing reminds the reader of their own fears in a world peppered with corruptions and dangers to the young and vulnerable.

This book is about journeys. The journey undertaken by Sid and his sister, in their escape to a safe place to live, and the coming of age journey as experienced by Sid as he learns to grow and adapt to the changing world around him; adjusting to new challenges and responsibilities and his emotional and physical changes from boy to man. Sids life lessons take him on a journey through the complex personalities of his fellow men, their conflicting behaviours and how not everything or everyone can be described as wholly good or wholly bad.

For those who may be put off by the threat of suffering for children in the book; I think the writer manages to keep the focus on the more positive aspects; however saying that there scenes of terror and death which may sit uncomfortably but aren't lingered on for long. The relationships between the characters are of greater importance, and the revealing of personal stories.

An unusual aspect of this book is the narratives punctuation with wildlife and stray animals, which weave in and out of the habitats of the children, seemingly unnoticed and often parallels the behaviours of the protagonists. A cat who gives birth attempts to move her young to safety under the threat of predation, as likewise Sid must keep his little sister hidden from the Exterminating Angels.

On the whole, an enjoyable book (if enjoyable can really be a world to describe this kind of book) which centres on survival and changing relationships, tinted with hope in the form of natural beauty in the form of wildlife and nature.

[Linda Guest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Runners is another dystopian novel, based in Cornwall and Devon; after the apocalyptic climate change (that seems to be a central feature of so many of these novels), people are ‘reduced’ unless they are in the age bracket 8 to 14. Our hero is Sid who is 14 but looks after his 5 year old sister Lo. They are runners because Sid promised his parents he would take care of Lo who is in danger of being reduced due to her age. I liked this novel. The central characters and the people they meet are all portrayed in a believable fashion. The idea that people would be herded into ghettos and then selectively reduced is reminiscent of the Jews in Warsaw and there are many parallels as the story unfolds. This is a very good read and I am pleased to see so much new teenage fiction is set in Britain.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not really for me. Book Trust have identified it as a future classic for children. Yet another futuristic society with persecution between those in charge and those not. Only the best specimens are permitted to survive; population numbers are unsustainable due to global warming and rising sea levels. The main protagonist, Sid, is quite an endearing character and has to be admired for his sense of responsibility towards his young sister. The decisions he makes may not always be the best ones but coming from a child, all perfectly reasonable. Will I be recommending it to my borrowers? Maybe not.

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dystopian future in Cornwall – global warming has resulted in too little food, water and resources. As a result the old, infirmed, the too young or too useless are exterminated to reduce the population. People who do not fit into the wanted category become runners to survive. Into this comes 14 yo Sid and his 5 yo sister Lo who are attempting to find their Grandparents who live somewhere near a town with a ‘z’ in it. They have adventures, survive when many others don’t. A not too original storyline.

[JulPerez.2003 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very thoughtful story; makes you think about the way humans treat the environment and the consequences of that. Overall, an average read- there is much room for improvement.

[Patricia Kaniasty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very emotional story. Had me laughing and crying. Fell in love with little Lo. Great characters.

[Heidi Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was devastating to read - I had to read it in one sitting so that I wouldn't have to think about the horrible things that happen to these kids for any longer than necessary!